a record of the life and times here at the phillips pottery in abilene, texas.

Saturday, November 21, 2009

fixin' kilns...texas style.

As I mentioned in a previous post my kiln has been doing a little walking...about an inch. This is my own fault, I was supposed to install some bracing but my welder is kaput and I don't know anyone with a generator-run welder that I can borrow. I also have never put the "stucco" coat over the arch and walls. The kiln was done enough and I needed to fire so those things fell to the wayside. Now I have to deal with it...perhaps I have the makings of a to-do list for the xmas break.

A 3000# winch strap and a board can move a kiln, pretty cool. I'm surprised this actually worked.

After the 2 minutes required to fix the kiln I went to grinding kiln shelves. Not one of my favorite tasks but it has to be done. I'm a "bare minimum" shelf grinder, if it ain't bubbling up I'm not grinding it.

The goats have taken a liking to the dogs and like to stand right outside the fence while Kaylee barks incessantly at them. We don't have any adorable babies around but we are pretty excited about our little goats so there will probably be a few picture of them popping up now and again.

Well...back to glazing. I have all these glazes and now I have too many choices so I'm spending way too much time trying to decide what glaze to use. Deciding how to load these is gonna be a task for sure!

I know the feeling, I'm sure I've spent hours of my life staring at glazes trying to make the perfect choice for each pot. I've actually tried to start thinking about it while I'm making each piece, just to save time.Good luck